Intelligence is a critical part of SWDiplomacy. Not every planet is blessed with giant budgets, GDPs, and militaries. Conducting intelligence operations and activities against other planets is one of the best ways of closing the advantage gap between one world and another. The spectrum is wide on how you can manage your operations, and this guide should serve to provide some clarity on a few things. Namely, what is intelligence, what type of intelligence is there, how are operations conducted, and potential examples and ways to think about when you write your intelligence actions. It isn't a requirement to be a professional intelligence officer to play this game. This guide simply serves as a way to educate you further on some of the core concepts of intelligence.
What is Intelligence?
Let’s start out with the core question here. What is Intelligence? Intelligence is the collection or gathering and ultimate assessment of information to support policy-making, or decision-making at a strategic, operational, or tactical level. This collection can be done through overt, clandestine, or covert means. These are three key terms and there are key differences. Additionally, no one is better than the other, and all provide massive benefits and massive issues.
- Overt: Open, acknowledged, and not concealed.
- Clandestine: A means of concealing an operation so as to hide the operation itself. Clandestine operations are still able to be tied to a sponsor/actor/state.
- Covert: A means of concealing an operation so as to hide the operation and the sponsor. Covert operations are deniable and meant to be conducted in a way where the target has no knowledge of the operation happening, and no knowledge it was conducted by a specific actor.
Covert and Clandestine are vastly different, and typically require very different authorities. For a real world example, the U.S. military does not have authority to conduct covert operations. The U.S. military operates on what is called Title 10, which is the U.S. Code’s National Defense authorities. However, the Central Intelligence Agency operates under Title 50 intelligence community authorities which allows them to conduct covert operations. Additionally covert operations require notification to the President as well as Congress. Clandestine activities and operations require none of these though, and can be conducted nearly at will.
This isn’t meant to say that you need to emulate this process, but simply to show the vast difference between the two, and how covert operations are VERY difficult and rare to conduct due to the authorities and requirements. Most developed governments utilize similar requirements. Additionally, they require a lot more time to plan for than a clandestine operation.
Intelligence Disciplines
Now that we’ve covered the types of activities and operations, let’s dig into the different intelligence disciplines. Let’s be real here, there is a vast difference between placing an agent handler somewhere and conducting signal intercepts remotely. Some of these disciplines are very technically demanding such as MASINT, and it is absolutely recommended if you want further information to read about them on Wikipedia.
Human intelligence (HUMINT) - gathered from a person in the location in question. Sources can include the following:
- Clandestine reporting, source operations, access agents, couriers
- Military attachés and diplomatic reporting
- Prisoners of war Prisoners of war (POWs) or detainees
- Immigrants, Refugees, and Asylum Seekers
- Special reconnaissance
- Traveler debriefing
Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT) - gathered from satellite and aerial photography, or mapping/terrain data.
- Imagery Intelligence
- Geospatial Data
Measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) - gathered from an array of signatures (distinctive characteristics) of fixed or dynamic target sources. MASINT is split into six major disciplines: electro-optical, nuclear, radar, geophysical, materials, and radiofrequency.
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Electro-optical MASINT
- Airborne electro-optical missile tracking MASINT
- Tactical counter-artillery sensors
- Infrared MASINT
- Optical measurement of nuclear explosions
- LASER MASINT
- Spectroscopic MASINT
- Hyperspectral MASINT
- Space-based staring infrared sensors
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Nuclear MASINT
- Radiation survey and dosimetry
- Space-based nuclear energy detection
- Effects of ionizing radiation on materials
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Geophysical MASINT
- Weather and sea intelligence MASINT
- Acoustic MASINT
- Seismic MASINT
- Magnetic MASINT
- Gravitimetric MASINT
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Radar MASINT
- Line-of-sight radar MASINT
- Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) MASINT
- Non-cooperative target recognition
- Multistatic radar MASINT
- Passive covert radar
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Materials MASINT
- Chemical materials MASINT
- Biological materials MASINT
- Nuclear test analysis
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Radiofrequency MASINT
- Frequency domain MASINT
- Electromagnetic pulse MASINT
- Unintentional radiation MASINT
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) - gathered from open sources. OSINT can be further segmented by the source type: Internet/General, Scientific/Technical, and various HUMINT specialties, e.g. trade shows, association meetings, and interviews.
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) - gathered from interception of signals.
- Communications intelligence (COMINT) – gathered from electronic signals that contain speech or text.
- Electronic intelligence (ELINT) – gathered from electronic signals that do not contain speech or text (which are considered COMINT)
- Foreign instrumentation signals intelligence (FISINT) – entails the collection and analysis of telemetry data from a missile or sometimes from aircraft tests.
Medical intelligence (MEDINT) – gathered from analysis of medical records and/or actual physiological examinations to determine health and/or particular ailments and allergic conditions for consideration
Financial intelligence (FININT) - gathered from analysis of monetary transactions.
TO BE CONTINUED....